“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes,” Andy Warhol once said (or did he?)—but actor and politician Cynthia Nixon is proof that some people’s window of fame just seems to go on and on (and rightfully so!). The And Just Like That… star—the daughter of a radio journalist father and actor mother—performed in film and onstage throughout her childhood and young adulthood, making her Broadway debut as Dinah Lord in a 1980 production of The Philadelphia Story before simultaneously starring in two hit Broadway plays directed by Mike Nichols while a freshman at Barnard College.
Later, Nixon received three Emmy nominations for playing the outspoken, sardonic lawyer Miranda Hobbes on Sex and the City. Although she’s since returned to the small screen to reprise that role in And Just Like That…—as well as starring in Julian Fellowes’s hit HBO series The Gilded Age—she’s also carved out a niche for herself in progressive New York politics: Nixon entered the gubernatorial race in 2018 with a campaign focused on addressing income inequality, fighting climate change, and establishing universal health care. (Though she ultimately lost the Democratic primary to Andrew Cuomo, Nixon has remained a steadfast advocate for some of New York’s most vulnerable populations.)
Here, in honor of Nixon’s 59th birthday, have a look at some adorable old photos from Nixon’s sparkling early career.
